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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24712474">A Fitting End</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinesAndColors/pseuds/LinesAndColors'>LinesAndColors</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>:), F/M, HAHAHAAH, and so did inej's, i dont know why i did this, im so sorry, my hand slipped, o o p s</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 00:20:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,119</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24712474</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinesAndColors/pseuds/LinesAndColors</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Inej stabs Kaz, accidentally. </p><p> </p><p>I'm not sorry.</p><p> </p><p>That was a lie, I'm very sorry.</p><p>Inej should stab me next.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Fitting End</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was panic and adrenaline that she awoke to. For a few moments she forgot everything, she forgot years of freedom and work and progress and all she registered was a bed and a man and the white hot rage inside of her that said <i>never again.</i></p><p>She inhaled and action responded to emotion quicker then logic did, years of well worn memory found the knife in her hand and sinking smoothly into the body beneath her before she finished exhaling.</p><p>It was the gasps that brought her back. Suddenly speeding up through years, out of the Menagerie, years with the dregs, the wild panic and excitement of the weeks working toward the biggest prize she'd ever had, and years worth of coming home, exhausted and proud, to bitter brown eyes and bared hands, hands that now grasped at her wrist, still tense and holding the knife down, those same eyes that stared back at her in shock and pain with the haze of sleep still fogging over them. He was always at his most experssionate when waking up.</p><p>His second wretched gasp knocked her back into action, letting go of the knife and jerking her hand back as though it burned, pushing herself up and away from the man who laid, clutching at a gleaming knife aimed directly for his heart. And Inej knew, saints help her, she <i>knew</i> she hit her mark,  could see the angle and the depth of the knife, something that usually came with pride at a job done well and efficiently, and she knew there was no way it didn't pierce exactly what it was suppose to.</p><p>She watched, her hand raising to her mouth, as he fully woke up and realized what was happening, the fine clockwork of his brain clicking to life as he looked down at the knife and back up to her. She wanted to say something, explain herself, apologize, offer her own knife and chest in retaliation, but all that came was a torn sob from her chest. </p><p>And damn him and every one of her saints, she could find no hint of betrayal or anger in him, even as he grimaced when he tried to inhale again. She watched him relax, the facts of the situation taken in, that calm steady demeanor she'd come to rely on settling over him. She watched as he exhaled shakily and looked back at her, watched the barest of a smile tug at the corner of his mouth.</p><p>"A fitting end, don't you think?" He rasped out after he managed to draw in another breath, his voice like grit from sleep with the breathy quality of someone trying not to breath too hard. </p><p>She broke, and managed to sob out a broken, "Kaz." As her hands fluttered toward his chest, not knowing what to do, knowing, somewhere deep down, there was nothing she <i>could</i> do. Once that first word came from her mouth it seemed to be all she could say and she latched on to it, repeating it over and over again and she tried to apply pressure to the wound around the knife, getting a pained grunt from him in response. Reasoning finally kicked in and she heard herself screaming for help, for a medic, as though her voice lay far away, in the bottom of the slat, muffled by layers of wooden floors. Distantly she registered the slamming of doors being thrown open, the clamor of chaos starting below, but it all seemed so far away when all she could really focus on were the gurgling breaths beneath her hands. </p><p>She looked up to his face, the details of it blurred by the tears burning her eyes, and found him staring right back at her, calm and understanding,  "Kaz, I-" she started, unsure where she was going to go, unsure what words would be worth these precious moments, but he didn't let her find out. A hand reached up to tug at a wave of hair above him, pulling her down and once again she found herself floored by how uncommon he really was, how gently he accepted death. He did not go with bumbling last words and proclamations, he did not go begging for life, he just pulled her down for a kiss, no urgency, no need, and she sobbed into it, the absurd need to laugh at how obvious it was he'd use his last moment selfishly, doing something he liked, bubbling up inside her and she found herself clutching at him.</p><p>She she stayed that way, mouth pressed against his until she no longer felt the gentle blowing of air against her cheek, until she could no longer feel the ragged rise and fall of the chest beneath her hands, and she let out a broken gasp for breath as she struggled to let him go, to lift her head and lower his. To look up at the shocked eyes of the dregs around her, trying to piece together what happened. Something deep in her welled and grew, twisting around like a hurricane in her chest, wind pressing out against her lungs more and more until the pressure was too much and she wrapped her arms around herself, gripping at her sides, and released it with a scream she couldn't hear.</p><p>She screamed and kept screaming even as the drags approached the bed, even as one of them dragged her from it, kicking and still screaming, the chaos in her mind unable to recognize who it was that had her, only that they were pulling her away from the body that lay on the bed, burnt coffee eyes staring into nothing, dark wet stain spreading across a wrinkled shirt, and she screamed as she was dragged from the room and down the stairs, ignoring the voice that grunted and tried to reason with her.</p><p>"They'll kill you if you stay. You hear me? They'll look at that knife and put two and two together and they'll kill you."</p><p>Her screams dissolved into sobs as she struggled still, "Let them." She growled, she grief and panic making her struggling fruitless. She thought of where she would even go if she wanted to. To the Van Eck mansion, to face an angry and destroyed Jesper, a grieving and confused Wylan?</p><p>"Let them." She felt herself go limp as she was dragged out of the slat, nothing in her willing to fight anymore. She thought of going to Nina, who would be all too understanding, who would never be angry, who would know this pain first hand, and Inej felt her feet drag along the cobblestone as she fell, only held up by some determined dreg. </p><p>"Let Them."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Aaaaahahahahaha, well.</p><p>I refuse to read fics that have major character deaths.</p><p>I feel like I've betrayed myself.</p><p>If it makes anyone feel any better, I do not actually believe Inej would fall this hard given Kaz's death, like, I think she'd be absolutely wrecked for a bit yeah, but shes Inej, the Wraith, shes deadly and she adapts and shed find a way to make this have meaning. So like, slight ooc for Inej and probably Kaz I dunno.</p><p>Hope you enjoyed.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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